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The Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Frans de Waal Quotes

There has been so much underestimating of animal cognition that to perhaps overestimate it, as I probably do, is probably a healthy reaction.

– Frans de Waal

We need to separate the process of evolution – which is, indeed, a self-serving process – and the actual motivations of animals.

– Frans de Waal

If one bird foraging in a flock on the ground suddenly takes off, all other birds will take off immediately after, before they even know what’s going on. The one who stays behind may be prey.

– Frans de Waal

Very ancient parts of the brain are involved in moral decision making.

– Frans de Waal

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.

– Frans de Waal

Religion looms as large as an elephant in the United States, to the point that being nonreligious is about the biggest handicap a politician running for office can have, bigger than being gay, unmarried, thrice married, or black.

– Frans de Waal

Sometimes I read about someone saying with great authority that animals have no intentions and no feelings, and I wonder, ‘Doesn’t this guy have a dog?’

– Frans de Waal

Octopuses have hundreds of suckers, each one equipped with its own ganglion with thousands of neurons. These ‘mini-brains’ are interconnected, making for a widely distributed nervous system. That is why a severed octopus arm may crawl on its own and even pick up food.

– Frans de Waal

War is evitable if conditions are such that the costs of making war are higher than the benefits.

– Frans de Waal

Bonobo studies started in the ’70s and came to fruition in the ’80s. Then in the ’90s, all of a sudden, boom, they ended because of the warfare in the Congo. It was really bad for the bonobo and ironic that people with their warfare were preventing us from studying the hippies of the primate world.

– Frans de Waal

Chimpanzees have very strong preferences and aversions that are completely personality-linked. The people who are unsuccessful in working with chimpanzees are those who take this personally.

– Frans de Waal

There’s a long tradition in Western thought that humans are not shackled by biology, whereas animals are pure instinct machines.

– Frans de Waal

I have often noticed how primate groups in their entirety enter a similar mood. All of a sudden, all of them are playful, hopping around. Or all of them are grumpy. Or all of them are sleepy and settle down. In such cases, the mood contagion serves the function of synchronizing activities.

– Frans de Waal

What is the evolutionary value of blushing? It seems not to be to our advantage to do it, to involuntarily reveal our inner emotions. If we’re trying to manipulate or lie, actions in furtherance of individual goals as opposed to the goals of others, blushing would not seem to be helpful. And yet everyone blushes, except the psychopath.

– Frans de Waal

I describe in ‘Chimpanzee Politics’ how the alpha male needs broad support to reach the top spot. He needs some close allies and he needs many group members to be on his side.

– Frans de Waal

I’m personally a nonbeliever, so I’m struggling with if we really need religion.

– Frans de Waal

If there is any form of contagion that is adaptive, it is the immediate response to the fear of others. If others are fearful, there may be good reason for you to be fearful too.

– Frans de Waal

The thinking is that we started evolving language not by speaking but by gesturing.

– Frans de Waal

Chimps don’t have language. Humans actively instruct others about how things should be done. Chimpanzees probably pick up cultural traditions by observation.

– Frans de Waal

I am personally not against keeping animals at zoos, as they serve a huge educational purpose, but treating them well and with respect seems the least we could do, and with ‘we’ I mean not just zoo staff, but most certainly also the public.

– Frans de Waal

Following rules is, of course, the reason the dog is man’s best friend is because the dog follows rules, and they actually do experiments on that, is that how well certain breeds of dogs follow rules, and how much they internalize them. And so many hierarchical animals, obviously they follow rules.

– Frans de Waal

I think the sense of fairness in humans is very strongly developed, and that’s why we react so strongly to all the bonuses received by Wall Street executives. We want to know why they deserve these benefits.

– Frans de Waal

The role of inequity in society is grossly underestimated. Inequity is not good for your health, basically.

– Frans de Waal

The fact that the apes exist and that we can study them is extremely important and makes us reflect on ourselves and our human nature. In that sense alone, you need to protect the apes.

– Frans de Waal

Understanding the need for religion is a far superior goal to bashing it.

– Frans de Waal

The enemy of science is not religion. Religion comes in endless shapes and forms… The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.

– Frans de Waal

Male chimpanzees have an extraordinarily strong drive for dominance. They’re constantly jockeying for position.

– Frans de Waal

Humans have a lot of pro-social tendencies.

– Frans de Waal

When humans behave murderously, such as inflicting senseless slaughter of innocents in warfare, we like to blame it on some dark, ‘animalistic’ instinct.

– Frans de Waal

In Africa, we have the bush meat trade, which means that, on a very large scale, animals are being killed in the forests and sold in the cities as a luxury food.

– Frans de Waal

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